My dad, however, always carries a pocket knife (for fishing purposes), and I've seen them get so much wear, the inside of the blade starts getting worn away from being sharpened so often. What's a "lifetime" for someone who sharpens a knife every other week? That's going to wear out even a "BIFL" pocket knife much sooner than "life" would lead you to believe.
There needs to be a way to incorporate the duty cycle of the thing being reviewed, and length of time owned, but then you're just back to the problem of people gaming a review system, and the commercial internet has ruined everything.
But pretty much anything off-the-shelf I would have to see some extraordinary evidence.
BUT, you're still going to need (probably) multiple resoles, patching, and what not.
Take a look at the shoes Prince Charles is wearing - they're bespoke shoes from the 50s.
But you need to ask yourself - at what point do you just scrap them, and buy a new pair?
Some people love the vintage "relic" look - but every resole and patching is going to cost you money. Purchasing a pair of $1000 shoes, and then spending $1000-$2000 on maintenance the next 50 years will make sense for some, but not for others.
I personally, would much rather just buy a new pair of $500-$1000 shoes every 10-15 years, and discard the old ones when they start to look too shabby.
I live my guitars old and reliced, but shoes ? No thanks. When / if my shoes need patching, I'm throwing them.
Dr Martens also had, at some point, sold a "for life" line that came with an extensive guarantee:
> The guarantee covers the failure of any component, such as upper leather, stitched seams, eyelets, soles, welts, linings and reinforcements which has been subjected to normal wear and tear from non-industrial abuse and not unreasonably abused. The guarantee will be active from the day on which the original owner activates their guarantee, to the end of that person's natural life.
I have had several of these that I still wear after 20 years. They have been refurbished.